Camco Library System Gives Customers Free E-Books, E-Music

Camden County Library System issued the following press release to Patch regarding its soon-to-debut, free digital book and music services:

The Camden County Library System is offering two new downloadable services free to its card-holding customers starting Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013.

For the first time, library cardholders will be able to download up to three free music tracks a week to their personal computer, iPod or any MP3 listening device. Once downloaded, the music tracks will not expire or need to be returned.

The Freegal Music Service will offer access to over 3 million songs, from over 10,000 music labels in 65 different countries, including the Sony Music catalog of legendary artists. Freegal music apps are available in the Apple App Store and Google Play.

New eBook Service

Freading eBook Service is also being made available to county library customers. With an initial collection of over 20,000 titles, Freading will complement the library’s existing eBook services, but with some added advantages.

All customers will have simultaneous access to all titles in the collection with no holds or waiting lists. Under this service, card holders can download or take out a title for an initial loan period of two weeks, with the option to renew for one more two-week period.

The number of titles that can be downloaded in a week from Freading is determined by a token system. Freading assigns a token value to each title based on how recently it was released, the popularity of the author and other factors. Each customer gets five tokens a week. Depending on the token value of each title selected, customers may download anywhere from one to five books a week.

Freading has its own apps for the iPad and iPhone, and its own apps for Android tablets and phones. It is also compatible with the Kindle Fire, the Nook devices and Kobo devices.

Supporting Customers’ Changing Technology Preferences

“These two new downloadable services will be great assets to the library’s collections providing our customers with broad content. They’re both compatible with many different devices and are simple to use. The addition of these online products helps us to better serve our communities as we adapt to and support the technology our customers are using today,” notes Camden County Library Director Linda Devlin.

Both Freegal and Freading are trademark services of Library Ideas, a new media company based out of Fairfax, VA. Under an agreement with Library Ideas, the Camden County Library System pays the cost of downloads to provide its customers free access to both services.

Both the Freegal and Freading services will be made available to member customers on the library’s website starting Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013.